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Opposing assisted suicide –‘religious’ push?

It is essential that the law upholds the protection of life of every individual…..unless the right to life is respected, protected and promoted within our society…. we risk falling into social disintegration as the lives of some are deemed to be less worthy of protection than the lives of others.

Brendan McCarthy writes in, Assisted Suicide: Drawing a Line in the Sand, that opposition to pro euthanasia efforts to change the current law prohibiting assisted suicide is commonly viewed as an expression of Christian faith or religious belief, and is an attempt to enforce religious opinion and culture on others. Brendan writes that not only Christians and other people of a faith, but agnostics, humanists and atheists may agree on

….common principles that can enable us to come together to uphold protection of life, care for the vulnerable and the essential integrity of our society in opposing assisted suicide.

We all have the same RIGHT, RESPONSIBILITY and OBLIGATION; regardless of age, gender, and whether we are a Christian, religious or not; to act as responsible citizens. We can all come together, regardless if we are Christian, Muslim, atheist or agnostic in opposing suicide. It is not a matter of trying to push our individual religious beliefs on others, but rather advocating belief in the protection of life.

We all have beliefs that help to inform our principles, which in turn help to inform our actions…… In the context of the current debate on assisted suicide, we are not trying to argue that others need to share our religious belief, only that the principles and actions that stem from our beliefs are worth supporting. People of other faiths and none may also share these principles without abandoning their core beliefs and without requiring others to agree with them. So it is that Christians, Muslims, atheists, agnostics and others may come together in opposing assisted suicide, if they agree sufficiently on the principles behind this stance.

To read more, purchase your copy of the booklet, Assisted Suicide: Drawing a Line in the Sand by Brendan McCarthy, from Grove Books Limited.